GTA Technology Topics, Tips & Tricks: U.S. SOPA & Protect IP Acts – Censorship of the Internet

Posted on November 16, 2011 by infophile

I’ve rebranded this email series to include “Topics”, to be more inclusive of the scope of technology information I am discussing.

Did you know a group of organizations have declared today, November 16, 2011, as American Censorship Day?

For those of you interested in censorship and copyright infringement you may want to follow what is going on in the United States with the SOPA Act (Stop Online Piracy Act). The infographic below explains it better than I could. Also this video on the Protect IP Act.

Michael Geist Commentary

SOPA blog post from Gizmodo

A statement by the Electronic Frontier Foundation

I grabbed this SOPA infographic from a WebProNews post.

GTA Tips & Tricks: PowerPoint Presentations & Wondershare – Embedding YouTube Videos versus Inserting as Files

Posted on November 9, 2011 by infophile

If you want to get fancy and use YouTube videos in your PowerPoint (PP) presentations this is the tip for you!

Using Wondershare to download YouTube videos and then insert into PP is more advanced and might be the most useful information, so scroll down below for that section.

Embedding Videos

Embedding YouTube videos is not complex yet sometimes they fail because PP does not like the embed code.

Press Share under the video to grab the code. Check “Use old embed code.” Then press the Embed button. Copy the code in the box. Note: Don’t use the tinyURL link. These links have never worked for me in PP.

On the Insert tab in PP, click on the Video drop down menu and choose “Video from Web Site”. Paste the embed code into the box that appears. Cross your fingers and hope it works and a video appears in your PP!! Note that you will not be able to adjust start time and end time for embedded videos. Instead you need to Insert them as files. See below for a way how.

Screen Shot 2011-11-09 at 12.48.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2011-11-09 at 12.48.41 PM.png

WonderShare AllMyTube

There is a free trial of WonderShare for YouTube for both Windows and Mac OS X

(www.wondershare.com/pro/youtube-downloader.html)

The free trial allows you to download YouTube videos as .FLV files (flash video). In YouTube if you hover over the right corner of a video a Download button will appear, once Wondershare is installed in your computer. Make sure you choose in preferences in the the AllMyTube application the folder where you want your files to be downloaded and saved.

Screen Shot 2011-11-09 at 12.56.13 PM.png

You will need to convert the files from .FLV to either .AVI or .WMV. I’m not going to discuss file conversion in this post. There are many and often operating system specific. Search for one, install and convert the .FLV file. (Alternatively you can purchase the full WonderShare YouTube program, which has a file converter built in. I would recommend this for heavy users of PP.)

Once you have your .AVI or .WMV file make sure the filename has no special characters or quotations. PP does not like the characters and an error will pop up.

Go back to this icon on the Insert tab and choose “Video from File…” from the menu. Navigate to the file and click on Insert.

A Video Tools Menu should show up when clicked on a video in PP. Note the Crop tool on the right on the Format tab. Very useful!!!

Screen Shot 2011-11-09 at 1.13.35 PM.png

This is the Playback tab of Video Tools. Clicking on the Trim Video icon allows you to specify the Start Time and End Time for your videos. Another very useful feature.

Screen Shot 2011-11-09 at 1.14.55 PM.png

Ok, that’s it! Now you can elevate your PP presentations to the next level.

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Gliffy

Posted on November 2, 2011 by infophile

Gliffy is a web-based application for creating flow charts and diagrams. I found this tool very useful in particular for LIS 533: Database Design for Information Management (IT). I also used it to make an organization chart for LIS 504: Leadership and Management Principles for Library and Information Services.

The free basic version allows you to save up to 5 documents when you create an account. You can create UML/ER diagrams, organization charts, Venn diagrams, floor plans, etc. The application allows you to export the diagrams as a jpeg or png file and print to paper or pdf. You can also share and collaborate. A great tool all around!

Screen Shot 2011-11-02 at 10.51.31 PM.png

Screen Shot 2011-11-02 at 10.47.50 PM.png

Screen Shot 2011-11-02 at 10.48.04 PM.png

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: U of A Microstore/Adobe Products

Posted on October 27, 2011 by infophile

Do you know about the University of Alberta Microstore? This is the place to get student priced software and hardware.

Are you savvy with graphics and design? One of the best software deals a student can get is an Adobe Design Creative Suite Software package.

For example, the Adobe Design Premium package costs $399 with education pricing (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat X Pro, Dreamweaver, etc.). But the regular price of this package is US$1899.

To buy only Acrobat X Pro from the Microstore costs $75. Why would you buy this software? Acrobat Pro is Acrobat Reader but with a lot more functionality, such as writing sticky notes, replacing text, highlighting text, printing to PDF, inserting and deleting pages, fillable forms, OCR text recognition and security options.

But of course there are all sorts of free open source tools out there that may offer similar features if you are willing search them out!

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Commentary on Intellectual Freedom and the Amazon and Overdrive Deal with Libraries

Posted on October 18, 2011 by infophile

This week my Tip &Tricks email is a bit different but still relates to technology. Intellectual freedom and privacy are fundamental values in our profession and according to Sarah Houghton (Librarian in Black) the new Amazon/Overdrive deal with libraries pushes the boundaries of these values.

I encourage you all to watch the video at the link below/attached and then forward on. I have also included links to less biased commentary – the announcement from Overdrive and a Library Journal article.

Fair warning…there is some swearing. Librarian in Black is really pissed!

Libraries Got Screwed by Amazon and Overdrive

Overdrive and Amazon Launch Kindle Compatibility with Library eBooks

Amazon and Overdrive Roll Out

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Why to Use a RSS Feed Reader?

Posted on October 13, 2011 by infophile

We all have busy, busy lives. Sometimes its hard to keep up to date with current news and events, posts on your favourite blog or website, and bits of information that maybe useful to you sometime in the future. Those who know me, know that I have this obsession with technology…but the thing about technology is that it changes so rapidly…so how do I “stay in the know” about what’s going on in the world (and seem smarter than I really am)? I use a RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed aggregator. My one stop shop for everything I care to know about that gets posted on the Internet.

My idea for this Tips email is not to talk about RSS Feed Readers per se…but to give you some ideas of what you could use one for. I personally love Google Reader because I don’t have to create another account to access my feeds and its easy to use. But you can key in “best RSS” or “best RSS Reader” in Google Search and browse for others. Alternatively, on your mobile device, go to your App Store and search for “RSS”. I’m sure you will have a wide selection of apps to choose from.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlereader/tour.html

On any website you go to look for the below icon or look for the letters “RSS” somewhere on the page or even in the footer. You can click on this RSS link, then copy the web address of the page you are directed to or the RSS link that is noted and subscribe to the feed in your reader.

Screen Shot 2011-10-13 at 12.14.01 AM.png

Examples of feeds I have subscribed to and why:

Facebook Pages such as SLIS Social at the University of Alberta and Banana Republic to stay up to date with event announcements. (Hint: Look for the “Get Updates via RSS” link on any Facebook Page.) feed://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id=202217855995&format=rss20
A plethora of favourite author and blogging websites to keep up to date about books, book reviews and issues in bloglandia.
LIS Blogs such as iLibrarian and Library Journal RSS Feeds on new book releases. http://www.libraryjournal.com/csp/cms/sites/LJ/info/rss.csp
News feeds from content providers such as Huffington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Mashable, etc.
The FLA Jobline blog to keep up to date with LIS jobs in Western Canada. http://jobline.fla.org/
I subscribed to ~25 Cataloging blogs when I was taking LIS 532 Cataloging & Classification to gain a better understanding of this area of study and tosupport individual and group assignments.
NPR (National Public Radio) for current events and book reviews. http://www.npr.org/rss/
Conference proceedings.
Study Hacks for study tips when I was in my first year of the MLIS program. http://calnewport.com/blog/

I try to keep up with posts but sometimes I skip reading them (e.g. if I go on vacation) using a Mark All As Read feature. There may be a feature where you can Staryour favourites to read at a later date. Also, being organizationally obsessed, I tag and organize posts I want to keep for future use into folders.

I hope you try out a RSS feed reader. Its a tool that can be used to simplify your life but beware of subscribing to too many feeds!

GTA Tips & Tricks: A Few Research/Reference Resources

Posted on October 5, 2011 by infophile

ALA (RUSA) Mars Best Free Websites

The 2011 Best Free Reference Websites. Quality websites on specific topics – fun to browse and see what’s out there. It was interesting to see WikiLeaks on the list but I’m not surprised at TED.

University of Alberta LIS Subject Guide

If you have not yet discovered the Library and Information Studies Subject Guide on the University of Alberta Libraries website, I encourage you to review this resource as there are a variety of useful goodies, such as lists of LIS Databases & Journals and in depth resources on specific LIS topics.

Web of Science (see series of images below)

Not yet heard of citation mapping? Well this is a tool that can help you find related research articles by mapping references (citations) of other researchers who have cited the article. A popular arts and humanities, science and social sciences citation mapping database is called Web of Science.

Enter your search terms on the search page and press enter. Click on the link for an article of interest to you. Then click on the “Citation Map” link (note not all articles will have a citation mapping link). Choose which direction to map and click on “CREATE MAP” at the bottom right of the screen. Then have fun exploring that citation map!!! There are some other features to Web of Science and I have only described here one of its most powerful tools.

Web of Knowledge [v.5.3] - Web of Science Full Record.jpg

_Users_jnmullings_Desktop_image2.jpg-2.jpg

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Screen Capture/Screen Casting/Screen Recording, Photo Editor & Audio Recording

Posted on September 29, 2011 by infophile

The below resource summary may be of help to first year students.

A great open source cross-platform tool for recording audio using your computer is a program called Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/). You may need to use this program in 505 for example, when recording and/or editing sound files for interview participants.

If you don’t already know how to capture images from your screen try this:

Windows – Print Screen (PrtSc) – For the whole desktop to be captured. Then enter the application you want to deposit it in and paste (Ctrl-V).
Windows – Alt-PrtSc – The current open window. Then enter the application you want to deposit it in and paste (Ctrl-V).
- Note cropping images in Windows requires a photo editor (Microsoft Paint, GIMP/GIMPshop, Paint.NET, Adobe Photoshop Express are all free).
Mac OS X – Shift-Command-4 – Hold your trackpad down and pull the cross hairs across the screen to “capture” the image (you are effectively using a crop and capture tool). It will automatically be saved to your desktop.
Mac OS X – Shift-Command-3 – An image of the whole screen will be saved to your desktop.

Want to jazz up your presentations (i.e. for that 503 bibliographic assignment I have been hearing about)? Try screen casting/screen recording tools. There are all kinds of open source software online (Adobe Captivate is very good but its professional quality software so you have to pay a lot!), so try these:

Jing (http://www.techsmith.com/jing/free/) – Windows and Mac
Screencast-O-Matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/) – Windows and Mac; hosted online
CamStudio (http://camstudio.org/) – Windows
Camtasia (Free Trial: http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/) Windows and Mac

They are each slightly different, so you may want to take a quick look at all of them.

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Multiple Gmail Accounts Open at the Same Time

Posted on September 22, 2011 by infophile

Does it annoy you to have to close out of one gmail account to login to another? There is a solution that allows you to have multiple gmail accounts open simultaneously.

Full details are here: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=181599

In your gmail click on the “Account Settings” link from the drop down menu that appears when you click on your email address (top-right of your screen).

Screen Shot 2011-09-21 at 3.11.22 PM.png

On the Account Settings page click on the “Edit” link beside Multiple Sign-in. Your multiple sign-in should show “Off” if you have not setup multiple sign-in.

Screen Shot 2011-09-21 at 3.11.40 PM.png

Click on the “On” radio button, then read and check the boxes. Press “Save” at the bottom of the page.

Screen Shot 2011-09-21 at 3.11.54 PM.png

Reload your gmail account. Copy the link in your address bar. Open a new tab in your Internet browser and paste the link, press enter.

You should now have two identical gmail windows open. On one of the tabs click your email address again to make the drop down menu appear. Click on the “Switch Account” link this time.

On this menu either choose your alternate email address or click on the “Sign in to another account…” link and enter your username and password credentials and then press “sign in”. NOTE: If you are signing into your ualberta gmail, you may have to go through the sign in process a couple of times. Its an annoying extra step but its worth being able to have your gmail and ualberta accounts open simultaneously. I would also suggest changing your theme colours for one of your email accounts, to distinguish easily between them.

Screen Shot 2011-09-21 at 3.28.33 PM.png

Hope this procedure is straightforward, but if not please let me know or come see me and I can help you set up multiple accounts.

You will be able to open simultaneous Calendar and Documents gmail apps as well.

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Inserting Images into Gmail Messages

Posted on September 14, 2011 by infophile

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks are an email series sent to the Masters of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) students at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta.

Here is a simple procedure to follow to be able to insert inline images into your gmail messages. I found this information at About.com (http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/et_inline_image.htm)

Enable Image Insertion in Gmail
To turn on Gmail’s Insert Image button Follow the Mail Settings link in Gmail. Click on the “gear” icon top-right corner of the screen. Go to the Labs tab. Scroll down to the Inserting Images lab and choose Enable. Click Save Changes.

When you create an email now there will be a picture icon (Insert Image) in the menu above the text edit box if you are using Rich Text for the text editor rather than plain text.

You can drag and drop from a saved image file on your computer (e.g. jpg, png, gif), or you can upload a file by clicking on the icon. You cannot drag and drop from a website – instead you would need to enter the image’s URL after clicking on the Insert Image icon and choosing the “Web address (URL)” option.

infophile

Curating news and resources for the library and information services community.

Category Archives: Technology

GTA Technology Topics, Tips & Tricks: U.S. SOPA & Protect IP Acts – Censorship of the Internet

GTA Tips & Tricks: PowerPoint Presentations & Wondershare – Embedding YouTube Videos versus Inserting as Files

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Gliffy

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: U of A Microstore/Adobe Products

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Commentary on Intellectual Freedom and the Amazon and Overdrive Deal with Libraries

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Why to Use a RSS Feed Reader?

GTA Tips & Tricks: A Few Research/Reference Resources

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Screen Capture/Screen Casting/Screen Recording, Photo Editor & Audio Recording

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Multiple Gmail Accounts Open at the Same Time

GTA Technology Tips & Tricks: Inserting Images into Gmail Messages

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share: